re: Which of these laptops should I choose?

Any particular reason for a 17 inch screen on the laptop itself rather than physically docking to a larger monitor (or casting to a 4k TV/big monitor for that matter)? 17 inch laptops definitely not an area where a lot of effort seems to be made to offer up a quality machine at a good value. Would seemingly be better to look at a 15 inch laptop and external monitor to get best value IMO.